The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 44, October 28, 2007, Article 8

THE COLONIAL NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2007 ISSUE PUBLISHED

[CNL Editor Gary Trudgen forwarded the following announcement 
on the December 2007 issue of The Colonial Newsletter (CNL). 
-Editor]

This issue begins with an exchange of messages between 
John Adams and Dr. Roger Moore, which is presented as a 
Letter to the Editor. Their communication pertains to 
the paper on fake Virginia halfpence that appeared in 
the previous issue.

Next up is a report on a metal detecting find of a 1781 
imitation British halfpenny. The report is authored by 
the finder, Kevin Jackson, with assistance from Dr. Roger 
Moore who recently co-authored an excellent paper updating 
information on this series. This paper appeared in CNL-132 
and was titled "1781 Imitation British Halfpence Update." 
It is believed that this is the first 1781-dated imitation 
British halfpenny to be recovered from U.S. soil.

The paper in our last issue which examined fake Virginia 
halfpence prompted a number of collectors to examine their 
reproductions. Jim Biancarosa contacted the principal 
author of this paper, Dr. Roger Moore, and arraigned for 
him to examine six of his Virginia reproductions. Two 
of Jim's coins resulted in new and interesting observations 
which are detailed in an update paper titled "More on 
Virginia Copper Coinage Counterfeits, Forgeries, and 
Facsimiles."

Next, David Gladfelter reports the discovery of a signed 
small change bill dated March 10, 1796, that was issued 
by the Common Council of the City of New-Brunswick, New 
Jersey. Previously, only remainder notes of this issue 
were known.

In our April 2007 issue we reported the untimely death 
of Mike Ringo. Mike was one of the most knowledgeable 
and highly respected numismatists specializing in the 
field of early American coinage. John Kleeberg, a CNL 
associate editor, had a good working relationship with 
Mike and has provided us with a fascinating personal 
look at Mike while detailing many of Mike's discoveries 
in numismatics. 

Our final paper, titled "1748-dated Counterfeit British 
Halfpenny Source Indentified," locates the counterfeit 
operation that produced several die-linked counterfeit 
halfpennies. Since counterfeit operations rarely, if ever, 
kept records of their activities, it is difficult to determine 
when, where and by whom the many counterfeit halfpence 
varieties were produced. Robert Bowser, however, made a 
significant contribution to this field of inquiry when he 
accessed the criminal court proceedings of the Old Bailey 
in London. Here he found detailed testimony by the arresting 
officers in several cases involving counterfeiting of English 
and Irish coins. Some of the testimony provides truly 
fascinating details about small-time counterfeiting operations. 
One case provided enough information on the coins being struck 
to identify the likely variety produced by that operation 
along with others that are die-linked to that variety. 

CNL is published three times a year by The American Numismatic 
Society, 96 Fulton Street, New York, NY 10038. For inquires 
concerning CNL, please contact Megan Fenselau at the preceding 
postal address or e-mail fenselau@amnumsoc.org or telephone 
(212) 571-4470 ext. 1311.

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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